How rude!

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source: Calvin and Hobbes Wonderland

Latests movies seen

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)


Film noir by John Huston. The perfect movie in it's genre: crime, deceit, loss...

It features Marilyn Monroe who at that time was little known. She isn't even mentionned on the opening titles, only on the credit. It was a minor role to tell you the truth. It were Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore who were the leads in this movie.

In a city of crooks and low lifes, a big hit is planned. Doc Reidenschneider got released from prison after a 7 year sentence, with only one thought: to committ the perfect crime. For this he will need a gang of crooks to do this and someone to come up with the starter's money as well. But it seems the crooks are more trustworthy than the man who everyone believes to be so on the level...

FLAVIA, THE HERETIC (1974)


The kind of movie I would generally not go to see, not even on tv. But hey, you only live once.

A horror movie, seen as nonsploitation and just generally not very kind to nons.

Flavia, is forced to enter the convent, she continually challanges men, cause she believes women are equel to men (which I do agree with). But Flavia goes very far in her rebellion and crosses a point when she even turns her back to the convent she resided in and ends in a horror fest.

I'm not one for this kind of movies, but must admit, there were some scenes that were good.



LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL ( 2009)


A movie by Hong Sang-soo, of which I had seen the movie Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000).

This movie is about an independent movie maker, who is invited to sit on a jury of a small movie festival. He comes across a former friend/associate, who invites him to dinner. After a night of drinking, he gets a note at his hotel from that friend stating he hates him and never wants to see him again. This puzzles him a lot and trying to solve this only makes things worse.

Deciding to leave the festival for what it is, he heads to Jeju Island to give some lectures to studends. This scene I found very funny, because after viewing his film, one of the studends asks him: seeing your films are incomprehensible, why do you keep on making them. This sets him off into a frenzy, ofcourse! While being on the island, he is invited to share a meal with a famous artist, only to find out....


UNMADE BEDS (2009)


At the Brussels Film Festival it was the opening movie. I went to the second viewing. This movie is by Alexis Dos Santos.

The story mainly is about two persons, Vera and Axl, who's stories are interwined and meet several times undirectly. Axl, from Spain, is looking for his English father in London and Vera, thinking she used up all her luck in a labyrinth-park one day with her ex-boyfriend, believes that since that day she only makes wrong decisions.

Nice movie, but wouldn't call it spectacular. It features Débora François as Vera, who is also in the Belgian movie L'enfant (2005) by the brothers Dardenne.

stone faced

Sitting in the same chair day after day
Static in space and time, porcelain face, smooth and stern
Arms and legs outstretched as if fallen from a building so high
Into this old fashioned chair, with these old fashioned clothes wrapped around the limbs
Not a crease, not a scratch on the china
Static in space and time, though porcelain face is yellowing
Eyes beneath the cold stone see
everything through its limited vision
from its fixed place, only moved slightly when dusting or not at all
Unnoticed, still, integrated fully in its scenery
Always static, always locked in space and time
Lifeless and yet being a representation of it
Posing as if being life, but never really grasping it, too artificial for that
Porcelain face, china doll, never been played with at all

Mando Diao "Gloria"

Never heard of them, till I heard them on my online radio about 3 minutes ago (you've never seen me post this quick, now have you!).

They are a garage rock band from Sweden, dabbling in alternative, blues and indie, but this track is so sixties. "Gloria" is from the album "Give me fire"(2009).

Seems there is no clear explanation for the band's name.

The name Mando makes me think of Fando, from Fando y Lis (1968), a movie by Jodorowski, but that's a whole other can of worms for me to get into. For who wants to know: Fando and his paralized girlfriend Lis travel through a barren wasteland, postapocalyptic, to go to Tar, a city where all wishes come true.

A controversial movie: caused a riot at it's premiere in Alcapulco, was banned in Mexico, underwent cuts and a load of bad reviews... I was a bit taken aback by this movie, I must admit. But I did not regret having seen it. It's an art film; you must not expect it to be a mainstream, relaxing with a cup of coffee kind of movie... I read it was influenced by performance art, which Jodorowsky was involved in at the time. Knowing this, you can understand why the movie is how it is and can stir controversy.

The movie has nothing to do with this band/video, other than that the similarity of the name made my brain jump right to that sixties movie... though I think it'd be good to accompany the images. Debatable, I know.

I don't know who out there knows this band, and I don't know their work other than this song. But it has taken my intrest, crossed my radar and I'm going to see if it is worth it.

Official website: http://www.mandodiao.com/ & Wiki page: here

Brussels Film Festival 2009

It's that time of the year again: festivals are lining up. And not just music ones but movie ones as well.

The Brussels Film Festival is around the corner, and eventhough I do not know much on the programme, I will have 9 days of festival to take a chance to get to know them.

International movies galore, competitions, awards ... the whole thing is almost in place for almost 60 avant-premières to watch. I would much like to attend the open air screening, that will be held outdoors (and that the weather will be on it's best as well). Cause I'm so very curious how it will be like.

Wat is fun is that every night, a country is of the honour. So 9 days, 9 countries to dig into?

Last year I only went to see 1 movie, from Russia, called Nirvana. I posted on this and last years festival here. I really liked that movie (though some people left the theatre, still to my amazement). I do hope to be delighted and introduced to something new like that this time.

For people interested in Belgian movies, theres are the once who had their debut this year (also available on the website):

• DIRTY MIND, Peter Van Hees (2009)


• ELEVE LIBRE, Joachim Lafosse (2009)


• UNSPOKEN, Fien Troch (2009) : check out my post on this here.

So let's keep an eye on the website (if you are in Brussels, near Brussels and are able to go). The jury hasn't been announced yet, but I doubt if I know anyone... not that familiar with international film scene (as I'd like to).

Dixie Chicks

A couple of months ago I had seen the documentary "Shut up and sing" on the Dixie Chicks. In 2003, at a concert in Sheppard's Bush, London, Nathalie Maines made a comment - "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas" (the Dixie Chicks' home state) - that set forth a wave of controversy that resulted in a Nashville radio station boycott which took gigantic proportions.

In 2006, their album "Taking the long way" is their reaction and shows what the Dixie Chicks been through in those years, which must have been an emotional rollercoaster, I imagine.

to the left: The Dixie Chicks featured on the May 2, 2003 cover of Entertainment Weekly. Written on their bodies you can see all the critisizing words they've had thrown at them.

And I know that country music is maybe not to everybody's taste (but let's not debate that and open that can of worms), it is still pretty impressive and odd how a best selling female band in the US could get such a treatment for expressing their freedom of speech...

Being from the other side of the globe, and apparently have been unaware of the proportion of the reactions to the Chicks, I was a bit taken aback on how cruel people can be.

I'm going to get you all on my back over this, Trekkies...

I'd like to refer to this review "Star Trek rebooted - An alternative view (Part 1 of 2)" on Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' News and Reviews, where Sqt has made a review on which I totally agree on, and has clearly put into words what I couldn't! (And Sqt, it was a coincidence on the choice of pic, I noticed this afterwards.)



I knew it would be like this. I knew it. Someone tries to do a Trekkie thing and there comes the avalanche of comments.

I had the nerve to say to colleagues that I liked the new Star Trek. To me, it's an exiting and entertaining movie. I got an e-mail to a site where the whole movie was pulled apart, with references to plots in the franchise as well as character references of the crew... (I then wonder, how much free time the writer had to go into full reference detail on the mentioned topics!). But of course, the over enthousiastic Trek fans have to go knitpicking and pull every scene and plot and sentence apart. It's their full right ofcourse.

I mean, if you get totally invested in something - and I get how that is, I have had my share of obsessions and know I will have others to come - you take what you love and hold dear to heart. You are protective of it. But come on, it's a movie, it's entertaining, to hell with it already.

I too have seen Generations, watched Deep Space Nine, lived along with Voyager to their way back home and delighted in the fresh new take in Enterprise. But to me, it has been nothing more than fun and marvel at the adventures. I'm not too bothered in the details of coherence, if it doesn't affect the grand scheme of the Trek existance. Cause, if we are going to knitpick, how many times in Voyager and in Generations have there been alternate realities, singularities going amock and dream sequences? Countless!

Live and let live, I suppose. I just applauded that I got a Star Trek that I was exited about. The last couple of Trek movies have been a bit on the low side, in regards of exitement. I was fond of Nemesis, though, but that one seemed to have passed under many radars. I just feel, that if the franchise seemed to have gone a slow death, be glad that there are some who try to get out a defibrilator and shock it back to life. Good attempt, bad attempt... debattable. But at least, it got Star Trek back on the screen. Who knows what will follow. We're over forty years later, and Gene Roddenberry's characters are still out there.

Maybe my standards are too low, I don't know, but I got a lot of fun out of this movie. More so, because it was shown before it's release date, as a surprise movie at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and had Karl Urban (McCoy) and John Cho (Sulu) in person to introduce the movie (who were made to sing by the audience, in stead of talk about the movie!). It was a very fun evening...

Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival: The Chaser (2008)

Yesterday I went to BIFFF: Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival at Tour&Taxis. It's the 27th edition and is from the 9th of April till the 21st of April.

I had already posted last year on BIFFF, which you can find following this link.

I saw this Korean thriller: The Chaser (2008).

If you want a synopsis of the movie (which is a spoiler), you can follow the link to the movie.
Briefly said, it is about a former special service cop, who makes his living out of prostitution. One by one, his girls are disappearing. He thinks they ran away (leaving him with money depts), but he soon realizes it might be that someone is selling his girls. The truth is much worse than he thought.

I found it entertaining to watch. Though, what I had expected to BIFFF standards, not as violent as I thought. It did have very violent scenes and what happened to the girls is horrible. But it was not that I had to avert my eyes and try thinking of other stuff (what I tend to do when the images are too much to handle - not a horror fan.)

The movie did have some script problems. Some motivations where not very clear. How the little girl got hurt so badly is unknow.

The police force in this movie was laughable. That was on purpuse. It was a critique to Korean law enforcement, but it was almost a complete joke at times.

All in all, not that bad. But I do believe it will not satisfy everyone's expectations within the genre.

Here's a little teaser. Sorry for not having subtitles. The vid's who had were not good, so I chose to go for the Korean vid...

in a twist

Another one for the flowers of perpetual annoyance...

I'm in a bad groove lately. I do hope to snap out of it soon. Just not that easy.

Pessimism. It's hard to overcome once you've fell head first in it.

The main question is of course, how did I get to this point of gloomy thoughts?

It is never just one thing. Well, yes, it starts with one thing, that leads to another and bam, before you know it you're questioning everything, everyone and without real reason to it.

I'm a bit unhappy in what I do. I don't feel validation or challenges anymore. I'd like to have something to set my teeth in, to process and think about. To have some sense of pride and accomplishing something. And as a result, to share my experiences and exchange ideas with others. This is one of the main things I've lacked in the past couple of months.

I have turned into a robot mainly: execute, execute. Insert order, process fastest execution pathway and execute. And the demands are too much. Now this is no way of getting satisfaction in one's work, is that? And it is so mundane the things I have to do.

Where has gone the creativity? Where has gone the exitement?

The problem is, that it has slipt through in other parts of my life too. Mainly by my own doing, but which I have only resently come to realize.

Cause what do you do when you lack confirmation? You seek it elsewhere. When your job has left you with a need, you want to satisfy that need by something else. You want to be satisfied by others. And that is where lies my mistake. You cannot expect confirmation from others just because you need it. You cannot expect others to fill in a void that you suddenly come to realize you have. First of all, others aren't mind readers. They don't know there is something you need. And then, is it fair to in a sense use someone to make you feel better? Use is a big word, and often enough it isn't really that. But if you really scrub the surface down to it, it is a form of using. Mostly, the key to selfrespect and selfhappiness starts with yourself. Others can only guide you, encourage you and show you the way.

My hunger, my need to get out of this "dip" makes me tend to put stuff under the looking glass. To scrupulize things where they don't need scrupulizing. I overanalyze. Knowing that is a big thing. Admitting that I tend to look for problems in area's where there shouldn't be any, is hard, but nontheless so. After I wade in my own misery for a while (which, yes, is all in my mind), I come to the realization that I overexagerate and have too much of a tunnel vision about my fears. Fears that are just fears. Not even reality.

And that is where I go wrong. I project my fears and then they might become reality.

Cause where there are no problems at all, by me going all gaga (cause being in a bad groove can make you so), I plant seeds in other peoples heads.

Am I a good friend? Am I a good sister? Am I a good daughter? Am I a good girlfriend?
How on earth can anyone really answer those questions? They have all passed through my mind this week. And why? I have tried to talk about my "funk" at work, of how the pression, the monotony and the dissatisfaction was getting to me. And a sentence stuck in my mind. It went: "You have to make a choice. Either you choose to put all your energy in pleasing everyone at work and this will ultimately take it's toll on your personal life. Or you do your job at a level where you do as you're asked to your abilities and nothing more, but put that energy in your personal life instead."

And the perfectionist in me says that I cannot and never have done things half ways. I want satisfaction out of my professional life. But true. I cannot do it. At this moment I am dissatisfied. I feel ignorant and dumb, while I know I am not deep down. And the fact that I have come to question my intelligence, has put my whole being in unballance.

As I started this post: I hope to get out of this groove soon.

Monty Python and the exploding penguin

It sometimes looks like John Cleese is trying to retain himself from laughing... it's only slightly visible, but still... Graham Chapman is good in this.

Since I've seen the Holy Grail again yesterday, I have been surfing for sketches. Sorry to take the easy way out of blogging. But I just felt like posting the vids.

Go

Thumps
repetitively
gravel under foot
breathing regular
at the beat of the steady heart
the rhythm is set
path is fixed
road unknown
as long as legs carry the body
keep on going
lungs fully opened
head clear of thought
always focused on the next bend
the next climb
setting new targets
untill that tree
untill that bench
made it
still able to push on
always further
limits shifting
as long as legs keep going
keep breathing
focus

Watchmen (2009)

Hello again!

Today I went and saw Watchmen at the cinema. This was nothing like anything I had expected.

I recommend to read this post on Fantasy & Sci Fi Lovin' Blog, which expresses why the graphic novels of Watchmen make it stand out from others. How so? A quote from the blog I found interesting:

"The fact is that only a comic book can ask the questions we've always wanted to ask regarding our superheroes. We don't have a Superman in our real lives so we don't question the plausibility of the a costumed hero running around solving crime. Well, us geeks do ponder that question, but average folks probably don't. "Watchmen" does ask the questions though. Moore and Gibbons look at the costumed heroes of the novel and ask out-loud what propels a man (or woman) to don a costume and attempt to fight crime. Are they truly driven to do the right thing or are they simply bullies who couldn't pass the psych test to become police officers? And if so, why would they be tolerated by civilized society? How long could we tolerate them before we questioned their motives? And even supposing they had the best of intentions, what checks are there to make sure they don't cross certain moral boundaries?" Posted by : SQT on Sunday, March 01, 2009, "Why you should read "Watchmen" before seeing the movie", Fantasy & Sci Fi Lovin' Blog.

First of all the opening credits really said it all: this was going to be a beauty. Though besides that, it was the gorey-est, bloody, bone breaking though flesh squimish and intestins flying about movie since long I've seen.

I didn't understand why some people in the audience thought it apropriate to come watch this movie with their kids. (Hey, ok, there are masked hero's in it, but hell this is no Spiderman nor Fantastic Four movie! God damn, do some research before you take your kids to a movie!) Very irresponsible in my mind. Especially the gore scenes and the part with the hacking into the man (a killer) with a butcher's axe... I mean, even I looked away at that part, and I'm no kid anymore. Young children should not in any way see this movie, in my mind.

Such a dark movie. Ok, based on a graphic novel, but man!

Set in 1985, dawn of the Cold War. Nixon as president and things are pretty gloom. Suddenly, the Comedian, a former Watchman, gets killed. Watchmen had been active since the forties - rather like a kind of vigilante, persons withough superpowers - though maybe only Dr. Manhatten. This sets things in motion when Rorschach desides to find out why one of them gets killed, doing so in detective style narrating through a journal...

Check out spoilers at wiki or the official website. Don't ruin the surprise of watching it, go without spoilers (unless you plan on taking your youngsters ofcourse!).

Music: not something I would ever think to find in a graphic novel adaptation:

• Unforgettable by Nat King Cole
• The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkle
• Me & Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin
• You're my Thrill by Billie Holliday
• All along the watchtower by Jimi Hendrix
• Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner - from the Nibelungen (ok this is a classic and if you do not know this one, then you have never seen the Bugs Bunny episode with Bugs as Brunehilde chasing Elmer Fudd as Sigfried!)

I must admit, the only known actors to me in this movie were Carla Gugino and Billy Crudup.

Here is a trailer, but I feel it does give the wrong impression of the movie. It is so much more than this...

Off Screen Film Festival Brussels

I thought to make some publicity for the Off Screen film festival in Brussels, but then I was thinking... why do that? The venue is already so small, the less people know the better!

So this is no publicity. Just a picture of the festival where I am not making publicity for.

I went to the opening last night to see Tokyo. Actually it's 3 short movies by by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax & Bong Joon-ho called "Interior Design", "Merde" and "Shaking Tokyo".

I enjoyed them very much. Though "Shaking Tokyo" a bit less than the others.

The festival is an ode to non-conformist cinema. Not very mainstream, but why should it be. You can't please everyone, but it's fun if you are pleased by what you see.


So again: no publicity.

Hellboy II: the golden army (2008)

I had posted on the first movie: here is the link.

I will do a similar style post. For now I'm just leaving you with nothing but a picture, I know.

I'm writing this post at the same moment as I'm watching the DVD (I shouldn't do that actually), and so am only half way through the movie (they're at the troll market now).

Though I am curious what other people thought of this movie and which they preferred, the first or this one... or even both. I need to see the first one again, cause forgot a bit how it felt like.

Still, I can leave you with this: Selma Blair is cool.

burn red

burning red its colour is
as it's cold to touch it burns with warmth
at simply the sight of it
it's roundness can be held in hand
like a glass of wine
the smile only emphasizes the glow
and you cannot but smile
as unsuspected it has appeared
as durable and remaining it will stay